American Airlines, first carrier commercial or military to land at MSY after Hurricane Katrina
AA Offers Relief in Hurricane Aftermath
Just hours after the FAA cleared one runway in MSY to accept emergency flights, American was the first carrier --commercial or military -- to land since the storm, bringing relief to some of the thousands of employees and customers devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Carrying 8,400 pounds of bottled water and non-perishable food on the way in, the flight was unloaded and returned to DFW as a rescue mission. In addition to a number of employees and family members, AA filled the plane with customers who had been stranded at the airport for days, after martial law was declared and flooding cut them off from the rest of the city.
"It took the efforts of many departments working together to pull this off so quickly," said Tom Del Valle, VP U.S./Canada Division, Customer Service. "From SOC, Crew Scheduling and Security to Customer Service, Flight and Flight Service, there was no shortage of volunteers.
"Everyone involved executed their jobs flawlessly. There was an incredible focus and determination to make this happen for our customers and fellow employees," continued Del Valle. "In less than 8 hours time, we located an aircraft, crew, and supplies -- airlifted them to New Orleans -- and returned with a full planeload of grateful people."
A team of management employees from HDQ Customer Service accompanied the relief supplies and unloaded the plane, where operations will not resume until early next week.
MSY General Manager Tina Moman and a group of employees remained at the airport throughout the storm, hoping to have American operational as quickly as possible. In the aftermath of Katrina's destruction, they have been instrumental in aiding customers who were stranded at the airport by the severe flooding.
Contacting and offering aid to all of American's 's our MSY employees remains a priority, and a hotline has been set up to offer information to employees who are directly affected by the storm. A company-wide relief effort, in cooperation with FEMA, is underway. More details will be available soon on Jetnet.
"Communication is still very difficult," said Trish Hollinrake, Eastern Regional Managing Director. "But we're reaching out to as many of our MSY team as we can get hold of. While we're thankful that so far we've learned of no casualties, we're hearing reports of widespread damage -- some have entirely lost their homes."
A number of employees, family members and customers filled the plane on the ride back to DFW. A special thanks to our counterparts at Northwest Airlines and US Airways, who pitched in to help manually check in passengers for the flight.
The ground team at DFW also did a tremendous job facilitating both the outbound and returning flights, all with very short notice. A team of nearly 40 employees met the flight back from MSY, paying attention to every detail to assist some very distressed customers.
"The devastation is just beyond comprehension," said Del Valle. "I'm glad we could offer this small measure of relief to the New Orleans community and help those employees and their family members who desperately needed to get out of harms way."
AA Offers Relief in Hurricane Aftermath
Just hours after the FAA cleared one runway in MSY to accept emergency flights, American was the first carrier --commercial or military -- to land since the storm, bringing relief to some of the thousands of employees and customers devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Carrying 8,400 pounds of bottled water and non-perishable food on the way in, the flight was unloaded and returned to DFW as a rescue mission. In addition to a number of employees and family members, AA filled the plane with customers who had been stranded at the airport for days, after martial law was declared and flooding cut them off from the rest of the city.
"It took the efforts of many departments working together to pull this off so quickly," said Tom Del Valle, VP U.S./Canada Division, Customer Service. "From SOC, Crew Scheduling and Security to Customer Service, Flight and Flight Service, there was no shortage of volunteers.
"Everyone involved executed their jobs flawlessly. There was an incredible focus and determination to make this happen for our customers and fellow employees," continued Del Valle. "In less than 8 hours time, we located an aircraft, crew, and supplies -- airlifted them to New Orleans -- and returned with a full planeload of grateful people."
A team of management employees from HDQ Customer Service accompanied the relief supplies and unloaded the plane, where operations will not resume until early next week.
MSY General Manager Tina Moman and a group of employees remained at the airport throughout the storm, hoping to have American operational as quickly as possible. In the aftermath of Katrina's destruction, they have been instrumental in aiding customers who were stranded at the airport by the severe flooding.
Contacting and offering aid to all of American's 's our MSY employees remains a priority, and a hotline has been set up to offer information to employees who are directly affected by the storm. A company-wide relief effort, in cooperation with FEMA, is underway. More details will be available soon on Jetnet.
"Communication is still very difficult," said Trish Hollinrake, Eastern Regional Managing Director. "But we're reaching out to as many of our MSY team as we can get hold of. While we're thankful that so far we've learned of no casualties, we're hearing reports of widespread damage -- some have entirely lost their homes."
A number of employees, family members and customers filled the plane on the ride back to DFW. A special thanks to our counterparts at Northwest Airlines and US Airways, who pitched in to help manually check in passengers for the flight.
The ground team at DFW also did a tremendous job facilitating both the outbound and returning flights, all with very short notice. A team of nearly 40 employees met the flight back from MSY, paying attention to every detail to assist some very distressed customers.
"The devastation is just beyond comprehension," said Del Valle. "I'm glad we could offer this small measure of relief to the New Orleans community and help those employees and their family members who desperately needed to get out of harms way."
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